New Delhi: A Hindu outfit has petitioned the Supreme Court in an effort to have FIRs registered in connection with recent incidents of violence on Ram Navami in various parts of the nation, days after the top court issued a scathing condemnation of hate speech and claimed the State has become powerless.
The state has become "impotent and powerless," according to a court led by Justice KM Joseph because states are not taking action against hate speech.
Seeking the court’s intervention, NGO Hindu Front for Justice has moved a petition seeking protection for Hindu religious processions taken out on Ram Navami or other such occasions.
“It is submitted that this year on the occasion of Ram Navami, large-scale violence has been committed by the members of the Muslim community in a pre-planned manner in different parts of the country, namely, at Howrah, Uttar Dinajpur (West Bengal), Sasaram and Nalanda (Bihar), Hyderabad (Telangana), Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Vadodara (Gujarat), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand),” the petition filed through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain said.
The plea has sought directions to the state governments concerned to determine the loss incurred by the people who sustained injuries or lost their lives in the violence.
It has also sought directions from chief secretaries of the states concerned to submit reports regarding the causes which led to mob attacks and violence.
Ram Navami festivities were marred by the deaths of 14 devotees in separate incidents in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and clashes and arson in some parts of the country.
With PTI inputs